Connie Hawk, a Mountain Music singer from East Tennessee, quickly rose to fame at an iconic Nashville restaurant, where a certain celebrity customer still worries her.
It’s a classic, old-school steakhouse that hasn’t changed its menu in 50 years.
Sperry’s Restaurant still serves giant shrimp cocktail, prime rib, crab cakes, twice-baked potatoes and Bananas Foster – just like it did when brothers Houston and Dick Thomas opened it in Belle Meade in 1974.
Yet Sperry’s has always been a culinary home for Tennessee’s royalty and top politicians, as well as a magnet for the hottest celebrities, including Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves and actor/podcaster Dax Shepard.
Sperry’s is now owned by one of original owner Houston Thomas’ sons, Al Thomas, and Al’s wife, Trish. They honor the Thomas family legacy by making few changes to the restaurant and even retaining two employees who have each worked there for more than 30 years.
To celebrate the legendary restaurant’s half-century, The Tennessean caught up with one of those employees, waitress Connie Hawk, 62, who started working at Sperry’s as a cocktail waitress in 1992.
Hawk grew up in rural East Tennessee singing Irish and Scottish folk songs. She later played mountain and Americana music in a high school band. She studied music for two years at Cumberland University in Lebanon.
At some point, Hawk could play guitar, piano, flute, banjo, mandolin and Appalachian dulcimer.
Yet Hawk – who began her career in the restaurant industry at age 16, earning $2 an hour as a summer hostess in Gatlinburg – never aspired to a music career.
Instead, at age 24, Hawk started working at “a cool, hip place in Nashville” that she’d heard about in college: Maude’s Courtyard. And she never stopped working there.
“Until I was 40, my parents asked me,” Hawk said with a laugh, “‘Are you ever going to get a real job?'”
Hawk, who still enjoys playing guitar outside her home in rural Dickson County (“I live in two different worlds”), talked about her time at Sperry’s. She talked about the kindness of regulars, the “ball cap problem,” how TikTok has changed the people who eat there and the longtime customer who practically gave her a country cabin on a river.
What are the biggest changes you have observed?
“In 32 years, I’d say it’s the computers. Today, tourists and first-time visitors make up about a third of the people who eat there. The tourists come because of the internet. They search for ‘Nashvlle Original’ or ‘Steakhouse’ and find us. I like to ask where you’re from and how you found Sperry’s. You say ‘TikTok.’ TikTok? I don’t know what that is.
“The tourists enjoy it. There are people who film us (with their mobile phones) as we cook Banana Foster and serve it at the table.”
Sperry’s seems to be one of the last places that has at least a minimal dress code
“Older customers still come in wearing suits and ties and think the rest of the world should come in like that too. Can’t you look like you’ve just come back from painting the roof in public?
“We have a problem with baseball caps. It’s been difficult to enforce. We’ve had problems late at night. We say, ‘Please, Al, can we forget about this baseball cap thing?’ But older customers don’t want that. (Country star) Chris Stapleton comes in and we say, ‘Can you take your baseball cap off?’ He does.
“Fedoras and cowboy hats are allowed. I guess as long as you have your wallet, that’s all you need.”
A customer practically gave you a cabin as a gift?
“She’s from West Meade and has been coming here since (Sperry’s) opened. She knew where I lived. About 15 years ago, she said, ‘Honey, we have a property right by you.’ She told me about this area that was created for fishing, kayaks and canoes, and said, ‘We have a little cabin there.’
“I told her, this is five minutes from my house and I’ve been canoeing past there for 30 years. What a beautiful piece of land. Her husband died. About five years ago she came to me and said, ‘It’s time to sell my property.’ And I got the property for a very, very reasonable price.
“I’m still waiting for the family. I’m still amazed that I have this property. I’m there almost every day.”
This means you are very close to the regulars
“We have great customers. Three generations of people come to us. We think of a pregnant woman, and now I’m bringing the baby a martini.
“The customers know the table numbers. We know their lives and they know our lives. They get annoyed when we have time off, they are so attached to us. We get birthday and Christmas presents. I’m a farmer, so they bring me farm stuff, gloves, sun hats.
“It’s such a magical place. It’s almost like a private club.”
Tell me about the celebrities
“You’ve probably heard of Prince William of England, he was mentioned in People in 2004. His bodyguards came first. The mothers of Belle Meade called their daughters: ‘Get your lipstick and come over!’ We had rock ‘n’ roll, country music, Hollywood actors, politicians.
“There are a few people who still make me nervous. Emmylou Harris makes me nervous. She’s the queen. I have all her albums.”
“I served Taylor (Swift) when she turned 16; she had just made her first album. She comes by every now and then and the guards accompany her. Charley Pride would come by and people would go over and shake his hand.
“John Prine (Americana singer/songwriter) was one of my favorite people. I looked after him until he died four years ago. We loved John Prine, customers still ask us about him. He loved Bananas Foster, chopped steak, vodka and ginger ale. Great guy, we miss him so much.”
How long do you want to work?
“I thank the Lord every day that I can stand upright and move. It’s a very hard job, you rush, rush, rush, don’t even have time to eat and you have to carry heavy things. I think the next two to four years depend on Medicare and Social Security. It depends on the good Lord and my health.
“I know that when I’m 70, I don’t want to be there anymore. But I love the people. It’s the people who make it fun. It’s like a party every night. It’s exciting.”
Reach Brad Schmitt at [email protected] or 615-259-8384.
